With my pulse racing and my chest tight, I looked at the photos spread across the floor.
My mom.
Bernice.
Me.
All connected.All here.All hidden until now.
Chapter Eleven
Prime
Piney could cook.I’d give him that.
The clubhouse smelled like garlic, roasted tomatoes, and enough melted cheese to feed an army.He’d made three massive pans of baked ziti, which was exactly the kind of food we needed when half the club hadn’t slept properly in days.
Everyone filled the long table with folding chairs crammed in wherever we could fit them.Anchor sat at the head with his elbows planted, looking equal parts exhausted and wired.Pearl sat on his right, glued to his side, and Shay sat next to me on the opposite side, tucked close enough that her thigh brushed mine every time she shifted.
I didn’t hate that.I didn’t hate that at all.
Lost sat behind us against the wall with his plate on his knee and kept watch even while eating because that was what he had been ordered to do.Vin, Piney, Wannabe, Skull, and Push crowded the rest of the table.The only empty spots belonged to Cross, who was at the hospital with Bob, and Pull and Post, who were circling the island on patrol.
Shay poked at her food quietly.She wasn’t hungry.She’d just spent the entire day learning her entire family history was a lie, so I gave her a pass.
Every guy at the table knew tonight wasn’t a normal dinner.
We had shit to talk about.
Anchor finally set his fork down, wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, and cleared his throat.“We need to have church after dinner.”
Push didn’t even look up from his plate.“Why not just do it now?”
Anchor raised an eyebrow.“Because we’re eating.”
Push shrugged.“Yeah, but everyone who’s available is already here.Might as well.”
A few guys grunted in agreement, and then all at once their eyes slid toward Pearl and Shay.
Pearl thinned her lips.“Don’t look at us like that.”
Shay stiffened beside me, and her eyes flicked around the table.
Pearl continued, “You all know damn well whatever you say in church is going to come back to us anyway, so you might as well just do it now.”Then she batted her lashes at Anchor.“You know it’s the truth, honey.”
Anchor stared at her with that unimpressed president face.The one that normally made full-grown men sweat, but Pearl didn’t flinch.
Because Pearl was Pearl.
And Anchor… well, Anchor wasn’t nearly as scary to her as he was to everyone else.
He grunted, resigned.“Fine.”
I leaned toward Shay.“Just listen.If you have a question, ask me first.”
Her eyes lifted to mine, soft and trusting.“Okay.”
She didn’t know the rules of church yet, but for her, the rule she had was not to speak unless she was spoken to.
